NHRC notice to Delhi, Haryana, UP over deaths by drowning, electrocution

The NHRC on Saturday said it has issued notices to the Delhi government, vice chairman of the DDA and Haryana and Uttar Pradesh authorities in connection with reported incidents of drowning and electrocution in Delhi and neighbouring cities in which several lives have been lost.

The reported incidents, as in the recent past, are indicative of the "negligence by the civic authorities, which is a matter of concern", it said in a statement.

The NHRC has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that at least 13 lives were lost in Delhi-NCR including six due to electrocution and four due to drowning after falling into overflowing drains amid heavy rain "magnifying the creaky infrastructure and civic negligence", the rights panel said.

Recently, the Commission had also taken suo motu cognisance of two news reports revealing a painful loss of human lives due to drowning and electrocution in the national capital indicating negligence of the authorities, the statement said.

The Commission has observed the content of the news report about these ten more deaths due to drowning and electrocution in Delhi-NCR, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights of victims.

Therefore, it has issued notices to the Delhi chief secretary, vice chairman of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi police commissioner, district magistrate and the commissioner of police, Gurugram, Haryana, and the district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, seeking detailed reports in the incidents within four weeks, it added.

The reports are expected to include the status of the FIR registered, action taken against officials or officers responsible and the status of compensation if any paid to the next of kin of the deceased persons.

The Commission would also like to know about the steps taken or proposed by the authorities to ensure that such painful incidents do not recur, the statement said.

As mentioned in the news report, carried on August 2, most of these deaths happened after heavy rain on July 31. A 23-year-old woman, holding her three-year-old son's hand, slipped into an overflowing drain in east Delhi's Ghazipur area on July 31 and died. Reportedly, the rescue operation for them was delayed over a "jurisdictional dispute" between the police of Delhi and Ghaziabad, the statement said.

Another incident occurred in the Dwarka area of Delhi when a 12-year-old boy playing in a waterlogged area got electrocuted.

In two separate incidents in Gurugram, Haryana, a 44-year-old man reportedly drowned in a stormwater drain in Bhondsi and three pedestrians were electrocuted while walking on a waterlogged road near IIFCO Chowk. An elderly couple died in the Ambedkar Nagar colony of Dadri, Gautam Budh Nagar in Uttar Pradesh as a wall collapsed on their their make-shift accommodation due to heavy rain, it added.